Marilyn’s Spring-Has-Sprung Salad
If this salad isn’t the key to living a long and healthy life, then I don’t know what is. At 75, Marilyn is still competing in triathlons and after making and eating this salad, I’m beginning to see how she is still doing this. The salad is truly a hug for your insides. It’s packed full of goodness, celebrates vegetables like you wouldn’t believe, and will send your mouth into an excited overdrive with all the different textures, crunches, and flavours. Marilyn said the best thing about this salad is that you can use whatever vegetable you can find or if you don’t like something, then simply leave it out. While this salad doesn’t guarantee you will be able to compete in triathlons well into your 70’s, it does guarantee you will have a spring in your step for about a month after eating it.
Ingredients
• 1 head of romaine (cos) lettuce
• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 5 snow peas
• 1/3 cup frozen peas
• 3 Brussel sprouts
• handful string beans
• 1 baby cucumber
• ½ block of Greek feta
• lemon wedges
• small handful of slivered almonds
Dressing
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• Salt and pepper
Method
The first thing you need to do is blanch your vegetables. To do this, have your water boiling, then add your vegetables one variety at a time, scooping them out when they have finished cooking. Each of these vegetables will generally take only 1 minute to cook, but if you aren’t sure, watch for them to turn a vibrant shade of green then you know they are ready. I always rinse them under cold water to stop them from overcooking and going soggy.
You only need to blanch the Brussel sprouts (leave whole to blanch, then cut in halves or quarters to serve), string beans, frozen peas, and the asparagus (just make sure you snap off the woody end of the spear before blanching). The rest of the vegetables can be served raw.
To make the dressing, whisk everything together until it goes a nice creamy colour.
Dress your vegetables with the honey mustard dressing, sprinkle with feta and almonds and serve with lemon wedges.
